Forrest Gump
Through Forrest Gump's involvement in Vietnam there is a changing attitude about how the war is depicted. The film honors the army and portrays the soldiers as normal, decent young men who were doing their duty for America. Forrest’s heroic actions add a patriotic view to American involvement in Vietnam and make the army and soldiers look brave, loyal and chivalrous. Their innocence is also shown in their will to "get home", creating sympathy for the US. The music in war scenes included songs by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, whose lyrics are associated with the anti-war movement in America. Forrest’s lack of knowledge regarding the Vietcong is suggestive to the lack of knowledge displayed by the whole army regarding the policy of containment. This section of Forrest Gump is only slightly critical of US involvement in Vietnam, but as it is shown entirely from the US perspective, it is a largely romantic and patriotic view of the army and the war.
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Generally the ambush scene in the film is a very inaccurate portrayal of a patrol ambush. Most of these ambushes were done by the Vietcong, guerilla troops who would attack with small arms (pistols e.t.c) and vanish within 20–30 seconds into tunnels. Another form of patrol ambush was with booby traps set up by the Vietcong, such as spike pits. Generally ambushes were small scale but very frequent, designed to create fear in the troops instead of killing them.
On the other hand, if the patrol was part of an advance into the North Vietnamese Army held territory, it's possible they would have been attacked with mortar shells, grenades and automatic weapons as shown in Forrest Gump.
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Wang, Jennifer Hyland. “‘A Struggle of Contending Stories’ -Race, Gender, and Political Memory in Forrest Gump.” Cinema Journal, vol. 39, no. 3, 2000, pp. 92–115.
Full Metal Jacket
Across The Universe
Across The Universe is a unique film that utilizes both the historic controversy surrounding the Vietnam War, as well as, the music of its' time. Debuting in 2007, the film is rather new for the majority of Vietnam War films being made in the 20th century. In other words, this film could be viewed in a modern-day light, exploring the perception we have today about the country's past. The film uses The Beatles songs throughout to forward the narrative of the British male, Jude, and his conquest to love American Lucy. However, we also see various other characters from different racial and economical backgrounds like that of Sadie, Jo-Jo, and Prudence. The film is interesting because it does not shy away from the realities of the war. For example, there are scenes with violent, bloody protests that turn into scenes of war and guns. Other scenes even show racial brutality in Detroit, side-by-side, the death of a solider returning home. The film is definitely not idealistic in any naive way. Instead, it is the ending of the film that feels much different than the others.
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The end of the film concludes with the characters on a roof top in New York City. They are singing The Beatles, "All You Need Is Love," before fading out to the credits. Obviously this scene can be interpreted as rather bubbly and pseudo-realistic. However, the film actually makes an interesting point about how Americans view the war. While there were horrible actions committed by Americans during this time, it ultimately ended with a means of moving on. Across The Universe is a highly reflective film that recognizes the social rhetoric of the time, and uses it to promote optimism much more than the other films do.
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Full Metal Jacket offers a realistic window into the life of a soldier during the Vietnam war, as well as the many American perspectives towards the war at the time, even a decade or so later when the film was released. An especially clear and prevalent perspective of the war depicted in this film is the anti-war rhetoric that was popular in America, especially since many American’s did not agree with the war.
In the film, we don’t only see battlefield scenes that one typically thinks of when they think of war, but the viewer experiences the full emotional process of becoming a killing machine. From the beginning scene of the Marine recruits getting their head shaved, and beginning their de-individualization, to the final scene of Joker killing a young Vietnamese girl, we are fully immersed in the spirit of war. Private Pyle, who is the most human out of the men who are quickly becoming dehumanized, is quickly rejected by the system and is labeled and humiliated like an outcast. After the event of Pyle getting attacked in his sleep, seemingly overnight he is transformed into the model Marine. Though the model Marine is also a completely dehumanized killing machine, programmed to kill any enemy. And once we see Pyle fail to respond to his name, we know that his indoctrination is complete, and he has become the ultimate killing machine that America wanted to send to Vietnam to kill without questioning the reasoning, which is an ideological question that is posed to the audience in this film. However, this film was released in 1987, when emotions about the war were still very raw to the American public, and these lingering emotions are reflected in the soldiers as they question the war in the interview scene of the film. We also see the American perspective through the main character Joker, and his colleague’s writing for the Stars and Stripes newspaper that is sent straight from the battleground back home to America. This movie also brings up the idea of the “duality of man” which mocks American patriotism, because it mocks the idea that death and war can lead to peace. Therefore, the depiction of war in this film is not glorified or patriotic, rather extremely realistic, and at the end of the day, there are no heroes.
SYNTHESIS
The three films above discuss the topic of America's involvement in the Vietnam War through American-made films. The Vietnam was greatly divisive with both opposition and support to the film, fueling social and political boundaries. We chose these three films in order to see how the perception of the war, may have changed over time. As we saw, films closer to the actual event seemed to depict a more harsh, brutal reality towards both being a solider and the effect on Vietnam. Likewise, films made a decade later mixed a sense of both understanding and growth. In the end, the film that was made most recently did explore the negative sides of the war, but ultimately ended up with an ultra-positive conclusion that lets the war go. These three films are both different genres, but are also presented in diverse ways visually and musically. However, all three films work together to establish the idea that America's perception of the war is changing. While decades ago, the Vietnam War still exists in American society. But, the one daunting memory it held is now used to move on and change our country and actions for the future.